Forcing the City Gates
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: God bless you! Hiccup, thanks to Snotlout, finds himself dragged into a very physical game of Red Rover in which the Vikings show no mercy. And who should come sprinting at him? Astrid.


**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own How To Train Your Dragon. Sigh. This is my first HTTYD fic! YES! *Pumps fist* I've been waiting for this day for a long time! Cause I love HTTYD so much. This is a story that a plot bunny gave me at 1:00 am, probably, cause that's when I usually get my plot bunnies. Yep. Oh, and the game was invented in the 19th century. But I don't care.**

After Berk stopped fighting dragons and started tolerating and even started training them, life got into a pretty normal routine, if you can even call life at Berk normal. Training dragons took up a lot of the Vikings' time and there was also the usual keeping of the sheep and doing small crops and fishing.

For Hiccup, life at Berk meant sun up to sun down at the forge or riding Toothless. Not that he did that ALL the time. He WAS, after all, the hero of Berk, and since he had started excelling in dragon training, the other burly Viking teens started to hang out with him more. After his evident scam and the defeat of the Queen Dragon, he was still slightly surprised that they were still friends with him. Heck, they stopped by the forge every morning now to talk with him and beat each other up.

Of course, you could only do so much talking and beating each other up, so they either left to beat each other up some more or ride their dragons. Sometimes they'd get into rough games that when watching sometimes made Hiccup cringe. They weren't very merciful, but then again, what else would you expect of Vikings? He was more than the majority of the time happy that they'd leave him out, but sometimes, like today, Snotlout dragged him in.

Hiccup gulped as he analyzed the situation he was in. Earlier, the other five teens had come to chat, and of course Snotlout proposed a game. Of Red Rover. Beautiful. He had politely declined and pointed out the 'massive' amount of work behind him, which was really just a couple of daggers that needed sharpening that would take him ten minutes, tops. Somehow, some way (well, actually Snot had picked him up and swung him over his shoulder), they had managed to get him to play.

Now he was swept up into a game on a so wonderfully chosen out location. It was the same cliff where he had watched the Viking ships take off to the dragon's nest with his tied up best friend on board. Wonderful. He just needed to remember those heartwarming memories.

It wasn't long before the fun-filled sick game began. Seeing as there was a stunning lack of other teens, they decided to just have two people hold hands and whoever broke the bond got to chose another person to join them. This, of course, maximized the amount of physical contact and injuries, to Hiccup's dismay. The teen started to observe each teen when they ran screaming into the pair of tightly clasped hands. Tuffnut and Ruffnut, both not being the most strong on the island, albeit they were stronger than him, however, for they knocked him down more than once, used the convenient horns on their helmets to probe the arms of the people holding their hands together until they collapsed from the sharp poke.

Snotlout used his arms to his advantage and ran at them running sideways, using his arm to break the bond and to soften the blow. Hiccup thought that was pretty smart for his usually brainless cousin to do.

Fishlegs definitely used his large size to his advantage. He'd give his own, not Viking, more, Fishlegs war cry when he charged at you. He really didn't have to do anything else because the two that he'd be charging at would drop their hands and shield themselves instead.

There was Astrid who always yelled a strangled war cry, and the expression on her face made you cringe because you knew that she would not have any mercy. Not even for her unofficial boyfriend. Though they were kinda official, they kinda weren't. It was complicated romance business that made Hiccup groan. A lot. He had a habit of groaning.

Anyhoo, and, evaluating himself, he reluctantly resigned himself to his inevitable fate of being the weakest of them all. Even of the girls. Which was sad. He'd just try to coordinate his annoying hook for a leg with his other small, lanky leg that just seemed to not want to move. He never really ran at all, and he tried to avoid it, but in this game, ya kinda had to. By the time that he'd reach the two with their arms together, he hadn't have built enough momentum and just tried to shove their hands apart with his hands. Which never worked.

"All right, all right," Snotlout yelled at them all, even though they all were within punching distance of each other. "I pick, Hiccup!" Hiccup, who had been content to just stand and not do anything, looked at his cousin with an odd expression on his usually frowning face.

"Me?" he wondered. Snotlout rolled his eyes and waved his hand around in the air and stated flatly, "Yeah, don't flatter yourself." This earned both boys odd looks from their peers, including the protective Night Fury, who had been trying to catch a nap, which was really a fruitless effort when there was half a dozen Viking teens clobbering each other.

Hiccup shrugged and joined his cousin at the end of the cliff. They looked at each other awkwardly before Snotlout gingerly grabbed the boy's wrist, nearly knocking the smaller and more fishbone like teen over.

"Geez, stand up!" Snotlout said disgustedly as he yanked Hiccup's arm up, hoping that the rest of him would follow. The four blondes opposite them watched them impatiently. Hiccup gulped as he straightened himself up. If he didn't hurry, they'd start beating each other up. As usual.

"Okay, so who are we sending over here?" Hiccup whispered. Snot thought about that for a moment (_he probably needs to get the question through his thick skull_, thought Hiccup to himself) before answering back quietly, which was a rare thing for Snotlout to do, "Astrid."

Of course.

Astrid.

Who else would it be? Of course it couldn't have been one of the twins or even Fishlegs who was the size of an ox. Yep. It just had to be Astrid.

"Why her?" Hiccup asked cautiously. He honestly didn't want the older boy to yell in his ear.

"Well, it's either her, or we can get plowed over by Fatso or a Horn Head," he gestured to their choices. "But, you CAN make another choice. Excuse me while I catch an infection from a deep and oozy gash in my arm curtsy of Lump Braids over there." Hiccup rolled his eyes at Snot and sighed. For once in his flirtatious life, Snotlout Jorgenson made sense.

"What about Toothless?" Hiccup asked hopefully. He knew for a fact that the Night Fury would not harm him.

"He's not play-ing," Snotlout informed him.

"Okay, okay," Hiccup groaned. He wiped some of his auburn hair out of his eye with his free right hand and called out, "Red rover, red rover, send," he paused and gulped and sighed as he continued, "Astrid, right over."

The blonde barely flinched at the request. Frankly, the two had been taking forever, and she had taken the liberty to sit down on the ground and admire her axe. It WAS an awfully good axe, it had been sharpened by Hiccup, reminding her of said boy who was taking forever. When he had called her name, she immediately straightened up and tossed the axe in the air. Ruffnut, who was behind her, instantly caught it. Astrid then walked slowly past them all, even Toothless, who had decided to pay attention in case the boy needed his assistance.

Hiccup gulped when he noticed her inhaling deeply, and then she started sprinting. Like, really sprinting. She had some of the fastest legs on the island, practically everyone else was too fat to sprint or even run at all, which they only did in life-or-death situations, but, in her own right, she. Was. Fast.

She smiled wickedly at the two boys, who both simultaneously gulped. She opened her mouth wide, pumped her arms and shouted her best war cry. Now, Hiccup loved her a lot, a lot lot, but sometimes she scared him half to death. One of those said occasions was now.

Hiccup planted his only foot into the earth and hoped that the cliff would not crumble. Not that that wouldn't be a bad thing, considering the mess he had gotten himself into. He braced himself by gritting his teeth and closing his eyes and he hoped that he might survive the impact of an angry girlfriend. She really wasn't angry at him, but still...

Oohhh, man, she hit the pressure point. Right where their hands connected. Don't underestimate Astrid because of her slender, even sometimes considered small size. She could be as light as a feather or as dense as Gobber, and when she was dense, she was like a dead weight, and right now she was being dense.

Her running into them caused the boys to flip and Astrid to land on their arms. Toothless raised his head to get a better look as the three other teens who were safely on their feet, away from the collision, cringed.

Hiccup groaned to himself as he opened his eyes. Good, his vision wasn't gone, and neither was his hearing, because he could hear Fishlegs from a few feet away exclaim, "Ow!" and his cousin groaning to himself. Astrid caught her breath, which had been completely knocked out of her and stood up to survey them. Her annoyance kicked in as she stomped her foot and shouted, "Of all the rotten luck! What a limp grub-filled fish-brained bugger dragon scale!" Astrid liked to curse and call names. Just to let you know.

What Hiccup couldn't understand was _why _Astrid was calling something a name. He managed to get into a sitting position with his right hand, the only one that wasn't bruised, and turned to his other hand. Hopefully it wasn't broken. To his astonishment, Snot's hand was still stuck on his. The fishbone let out a little laugh. They had won. Snotlout straightened up too, and the older boy laughed as he held up their hands in victory, "We won!" Fishlegs and the twins cheered as Toothless smiled his toothless smile and snuggled back down to try to fall asleep again.

Hiccup was still rather stunned. He had thought that without a doubt the girl would have won. Wait, did he actually WIN a game? A sweet smirk managed to appear on his face as he asked Snotlout, "Can we let go now?" Snotlout immediately answered with, "Oh, yeah," and they both fell to examine their hands. Hiccup was surprised still further that even though his hand hurt like the dickens, it was only bruised.

Astrid was the only one in the group who was not cheering or pleased. Her eyes filled with vengeance as she marched right up to the boys. Snotlout had managed to stand up leaving the victim she had wanted to punish sitting down. Hiccup.

Without so much as a word of warning, the blonde hiked up her heavy boot and stomped on Hiccup's prosthetic. The end of the metal contraption jerked the top, which was in contact with the flesh and bone leading up to his knee, and in simple words, he was in a world of pain. The boy instantly howled and pushed the prosthetic down so that it would no longer cause him hurt. He winced and said loudly, "Why would you do that?"

Astrid rolled her eyes at him and offered him her hand. He winced and grabbed it. She smiled and pulled him to his full yet still short height. He grimaced again when he rested his left foot down on the ground.

"THAT was for winning," she simply answered him. Hiccup started to rub his leg and thought to himself, _Man, is she a sore loser_. But, he had forgotten what came after a physical hurt from Astrid. She grabbed his collar and brought her lips to his.

Vikings were never ones to show their feelings or emotions, and if they did, they never did in public, but apparently Astrid didn't care. But of course the other Viking teens reacted in disgust. Ruffnut instantly dropped Astrid's axe, which she had been faithfully holding and stuck her finger in her mouth and gagged. Tuffnut cringed and flailed his arms around and the twins broke out into, "Ohh, ohh, OHH!"

Fishlegs didn't react so much like them. He merely cocked his head to the side and said in a monotone voice, "Eww." Snotlout groaned and buried his head in his hands and walked over to the other Vikings in disgust. Toothless purred and smiled gummily at their actions. He then smirked and covered his face with his tail.

Astrid finally broke the kiss to the relief of the other Vikings and to the surprise of the short auburn haired one. He looked at her with a confused look and asked, "Why does the punch always come first?"

"Because," she answered matter-of-factly, "it makes what comes next more enjoyable." The blonde thereon winked at the stunned boy and grabbed her axe and raced off into Mead Hall. The other four looked at Hiccup oddly and started to talk amongst themselves as they went to join her at the bar.

Hiccup was able to walk to Toothless without trouble and said to the dragon, "I really don't know what to make of her." Toothless smiled and nudged the boy toward the Hall. Hiccup yelped and turned to the Night Fury, who egged him on.

"You know what?" Hiccup asked Toothless. "I could actually use a drink."

**That was so fun to write. I hope you enjoyed it!**


End file.
